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Fewer employees testing positive for drugs

Drug use among the American workforce has dramatically decreased over the past 25 years, but the number of people testing positive for prescriptive drugs is continuing to rise.

This is according to The Drug Testing Index from Quest Diagnostics, whose findings are based on 125 million urine drugs tests across the US between 1988 and 2012.

Key findings from the analysis showed positive drug tests declined by 74%, from 13.6% in 1988 to 3.5% in 2012.

But despite this overall decline, positivity rates for amphetamines, including amphetamine and methamphetamine, has nearly tripled in the combined US workforce. The increase is 196%.

Positivity rates for prescription opiates, including drugs like hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone and oxymorphone, have also increased steadily over the past 10 years, more than doubling for some and up b71% for oxycodone.